Refinishing a Must de Cartier Vintage Tank Onyx mechanical watch

The world of dress watches has always been dominated by a large house, I am obviously talking about Cartier.

Today we are going to talk about a watch that I particularly like, the Must de Cartier Tank watch with its onyx lacquered dial.

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The Must des Cartier Tank variation was launched in 1977 to conquer American customers and open up to the Asian market. This model takes the shape of the Tank LC equipped with its cabochon sapphire winder.

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The first versions were mechanical and were replaced in 1980 by quartz versions. But let's focus on the mechanical part and that in detail.

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I received this watch in very good cosmetic condition but the movement is blocked.

First step, extract the movement. The case is sealed with four screws on its sides. After removing the dial and hands, we are in the presence of an ETA 2512-1 movement.

After complete disassembly, we can see that the rust has affected two parts of the mechanism:

- A pivot of the intermediate wheel

- The entire barrel

After cleaning the parts, we found an intermediate wheel in good condition.

The barrel and its cover are free of rust. The barrel spring is replaced with a new one.

Now that all parts are sound, the caliber can be reassembled and oiled.

After adjustment, the movement turns out to be very precise.

The movement is ready to be fitted. This ETA 2512-1 caliber measures 17.2mm in diameter ( 7 3/4'''). Here is an image that clearly illustrates its size:

The date of the service is written in marker on the bottom of the box. The needles had a few stains and are now clean. The dial and glass have some minimal marks.

Let's move on to the nesting.

This Tank was damaged by humidity. These two scenarios are possible:

- The watch was the victim of a simple entry of water. Indeed, its design does not make it a waterproof model.

- The barrel assembly suggests that an unscrupulous watchmaker "revised" this watch without completely dismantling the movement. The liquid entered the barrel and was not dried because it was closed, causing all this damage.

To avoid the second scenario, you must give your watch to a trusted watchmaker.

Today, our Tank is in great shape and she lets us know it.

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To learn more about the history of the Cartier Tank, from 1917 to today, I recommend Franco Cologni's book "Cartier - the Tank watch" which is a gem.

You can get it here: “Cartier – the Tank watch”

The first version of the book was recommended to me by Roni Madhvani ( @roni_m_29 on Instagram), a great collector of vintage dressy and atypical watches, because this one is more complete in terms of vintage watches according to him.

You can also consult Simon's article on moonphase.fr

Some collectors do not like the Tank because it is too small or too feminine. I can only respond to them with this photograph where we see the famous boxer Mohamed Ali on the right wearing a Tank Louis.

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You can find the other blog articles here: Blog

This Must de Cartier Tank can be found in the LumeVille store:

Must de Cartier Tank mechanical man onyx circa 1977

Joshua Grillet

Founder of LumeVille and watchmaker